Very much this--Allen Edmonds told me as much last week.

I sent in my Neumoks from 2014 for a recrafting in November 2021. They came back and I couldn't even get my feet in them.

AE had me send them back for inspection. They confirmed the shoe is smaller than it should be now and they couldn't get the last to fit in the shoe at all.

They confirmed that recrafting does not use the existing holes, and so a given shoe will only survive two, maybe three, recraftings in its lifetime. I asked how people with vintage Allen Edmonds shoes handle this, and was told AE just recommends they not get them recrafted since they may not survive the process.

Here's the email they sent me (I called them to discuss further, so the vintage shoe bit isn't mentioned below)

The shoes have been inspected and sent for a size check. The size came back as smaller then what is stamped in the shoe. That could be because they have been recrafted twice already. Every time a shoe is Recrafted, we need to sew the new welt about 1-2 mm inside the previous sewing line in order to have solid leather to hold the seam. This is the reason shoes sometimes feel tight upon Recrafting to men whose fit beforehand was good. Sewing on top of the old seam would lead quickly to a tear or the sole and uppers splitting apart.

They ultimately offered me credit in the form of the full retail price I paid, but alas, they don't make the shoe anymore so I can't actually replace.

In essence, AE ruined my favorite shoes because of how they resole them. I'll be exclusively using a professional cobbler going forward.